Last night I made an effort to get this website to be more informative and focused on the upcoming Presidential campaign. I wrote two separate e-mail letters, one focused on Democrats and one focused on Republicans.
Now while I’ll likely catch hell from some quarters of the GOP for giving a forum to Democrats there’s a lot of my readership that’s Democrat and they may as well be informed too. After all, I can’t change the world if I’m preaching to the choir can I? It’s called giving them rope to hang themselves. And we all may stumble onto a good idea or two from them that’s worth discussion. As long as the people on the port side can keep it relatively clean and advance my posts with their comments, I’m quite ok with them being wrong. My theory is that they’ll get it sooner or later.
With that, here’s the note I sent to the eight major Democrat campaigns:
My name is Michael Swartz, and in the interest of full disclosure I’ll tell you that I’m a staunch Republican and plan to vote accordingly in the 2008 election. I’m planted squarely and firmly in the tenets of the Constitution as the Founders intended.
I also write a political website called monoblogue. In about 18 months of operation I’ve built up a reputation as being fair to those of all political stripes so a good portion of my readership runs in the spectrum of liberal to moderate Democrats. We can agree to disagree amicably. Moreover, one of my political heroes is Newt Gingrich, both for the fact that he’s forward-looking as far as seeking solutions to the problems our country faces and because he engages liberal Democrats in thoughtful issues-based dialogue regarding how best to approach these concerns.
And above all I have a goal for my website, which is to continue to build readership to such a point where I can profitably sell advertising and supplement my eventual retirement, since I have little hope Social Security will be around at that time! In short, I have and want to continue growing a readership that likely would appreciate your thoughts on what I consider some of the key topics facing us as Election 2008 approaches.
So despite the fact we’re on opposite sides of most issues I’d appreciate your campaign’s input. Set me straight if I’m not telling it like it is. Defend your positions. I welcome comments that advance my posts one way or another. The reward for you is advancing national dialogue and getting your position out, while the reward for me is twofold: sharpening my argumentive skills to make me a better writer and, more importantly for the goal of monoblogue, to build my readership.
I hope that, unlike Fox News, you’ll take me up on this offer and join the debate.
Of course, I did send something to my brethren on the Republican side and it went like this:
As a Republican on my county’s Central Committee it’s obvious that I’ll be supporting my party’s candidate on Election Day 2008. So you need not worry about that should you secure the nomination.
But I am undecided about who to support in the primary. So in order to help me make my decision I’m researching all of the candidate websites to see who I’ll place my support behind leading up to Maryland’s primary in February. And while it’s good practice for all GOP voters to study the candidates in this manner, my study is going to be a little different and a lot more public.
I do a political website called monoblogue and my readers will get to follow along as I come to my conclusion regarding the guy I’ll throw my support behind. From nothing 18 months ago, I’ve slowly and painstakingly tried to build a quality commentary-based website and I’m pleased to say I’ve grown to a point where I get about 1500 readers a week and rank among Maryland’s top politically-based websites (sitting at #4 as of this writing.) But it’s just a beginning and I want to continue to grow my readership to a point where selling ads is feasible and profitable. Hopefully you’re all good capitalists and can relate.
So as I make this decision, I’d appreciate your input in supplementing the issue notes you maintain on your website, which have become the core element of my decisionmaking. You may through your comments also have to engage liberal Democrats, who I’ve encouraged to comment as well. A little debate is good for all of us.
What I’m looking for is a win-win situation – you get a member of the rapidly growing “pajamas media” and a Constitutional conservative in your corner, and I get the benefit of your input as I strive to improve readership.
To that end, I encourage you to peruse my site and feel free to comment as you feel appropriate. As a bonus you may learn something about the Eastern Shore, our little corner of Maryland, which is reasonably solid GOP country. We encourage you to pay us a visit sometime!
Of course, I’ll share what the responses turn out to be. I’m betting it’s a bunch of form e-mails although some of the Democrats may freak.
I’m sure a number of you think I’m totally crazy for doing this, likely including about six other members of the Central Committee. But I was taught that you can’t get what you want unless you ask for it. I’m not losing anything besides maybe a half-hour of my time that it took me to compose and send the e-mail.
This also could help me achieve another goal in that at some point I want this to be a income-producing endeavor – but I need to gain readership. Part of attaining that is establishing a national contact base and the other part is continuing to improve with my writing skills. Improving my writing may come in handy in other parts of my life too.
As it’s been stated many a time; nothing ventured, nothing gained. This is my venture.
Including the full spectrum from Republican to Democrat is just smart. As Eldridge Cleaver once said: “Too much agreement kills a chat.”